Miles traveled: 440. SPC risk: Slight
Chase partner: Tom Pastrano.
Nowcasting help thanks to: Dwain Warner.
Tom and I left Norman at 230pm, after watching the first tower of the day go up on satellite west of Childress, TX. As was the case with other chases earlier in the season... we were hoping that the storm would hold itself together long enough so that we'd get a good show once we got there. We drove to Lawton, then Altus, then investigated some stuff near Gould that wasn't worth anything. Then we headed south to Quanah, and west again on US 287. Finally, the main storm came into view, and it didn't disappoint. It had held together for us. We stopped just south of Kirkland, TX. The storm had a decent rain free base, and at one point a funnel appeared from the north side of the RFB (can't see it in the pics though... the upper right pic might have it) A brief tornado was reported around this time near Tell, TX, which was due west of us, but we couldn't confirm or deny its presence. The last pic in the series below shows a storm that developed far away to our southwest.
We proceeded west, into Childress, then drove to an area SW of Childress. The storm, at first, had a ragged looking wall/shelf cloud, which disappeared as the storm resumed more of a high-based structure.
After staying close to the storm for a while, we decided to back off, choosing the better overall view of the storm over anything that might happen close to it. As we drove east on the FM road toward US 83, a shelf cloud formed to our south. I didn't pay much attention, as I was driving, but when we reached US 83, it was no longer a shelf -- it was a textbook wall cloud, striations above it and everything. All this happened in a matter of 10 minutes. We stopped about 2 miles south of Childress and took stills and video of this near-perfect wall cloud, all the while talking to locals that pulled up beside us.
The wall cloud loomed closer, and at one point, a small funnel tried to develop just ahead of it. Eventually, it got a little too close, so we moved east. The parent storm dropped large hail while the wall cloud slowly weakened. We sat east of the storm for a little while (SE of Childress), then drove through town, keeping up with it all along. The storm was weakening, however, as it was beginning to get dark.
As that storm weakened, we saw another ominous cloud approaching from the southwest. We drove back through town, and onto the same farm road that we had driven on earlier in the day, to get a closer look at this cloud.... which was a shelf cloud originating from another severe storm off to our southwest in Motley County.
The new severe-warned storm moved toward us. We met up with David Drummond and James Brinkley north of Childress as darkness fell and the storm drew closer. I managed to snap a few more pics of the approaching storm before my camera battery died.
After the roadside BS session, we packed everything up and headed home. We had to pass through some rain on the way back, but finally punched out west of Altus and we had smooth driving the rest of the way. Before this chase, I was extremely frustrated at how my season had gone. After this chase, I was looking forward to a bad-a$$ late spring in Oklahoma -- and the weather would not let me down this time.